“What I’d like to see is Ro falling back into line. No more complaints. No more turning up late or getting into fights, or disappearing when he should be at his desk. It’s his Team Leader’s job to make that happen, and it’s hard to explain why he’s being let off-”
“I’m not letting him off!”
“If I knew,” Derek said, talking over her and cutting her off. “That there was a reason for it, some difficulty at home, or some source of stress, then it would be easier to be lenient. I could explain why the work wasn’t getting done. But I don’t know what’s going on. He hasn’t turned in a sick note, he hasn’t asked for time off. I’m in the dark.”
Maggie kept her mouth shut. This conversation didn’t make her feel like sharing with Derek that she didn’t know either.
“It’s not a matter of training, he’s been here long enough. So if this keeps happening…”
“What?” Maggie didn’t like the sound of where this was going.
“I’m going to have to do something. I’m accountable here too. Best option is moving Ro to another team.”
Maggie’s heart squeezed just at the thought. “You don’t have to do that,” she argued.
“If I don’t do that, I’d have to make someone else Team Leader, I’m sorry. We both know you’re the best person for the job, but when it comes to him, you’re just not doing it. You did great training him up, really, I loved the results we got there. He did better than any of the other new hires that came in at the same time. But now he’s acting up and you can’t take the reins. If it doesn’t come down on him, it has to come down on you. I know it isn’t fair, but I have to do something, or all three of us are going to be in trouble.” He gave her an apologetic smile.
Honestly, Maggie could understand what he was getting at. But Ro had only been behaving differently for a week, and Derek could have talked to him about it instead of bringing Maggie in and making it about their relationship. He’d given her an ultimatum and threatened her career because of who she was dating, to cover his own ass. Was she going easy on Ro? Probably, she couldn’t really deny that, but that was because she knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t himself. And she wasn’t letting him run riot. She had intervened when she’d thought she had to.
“I’ll talk to him,” she said, though she didn’t want to concede anything to Derek just then. She just wanted to give him something non-committal so she would be allowed to leave. Sure, she’d talk to Ro, and just like every other time this week, it wouldn’t change anything. But saying that would buy time for Ro to get over whatever it was and get back to normal.
“Thank you,” Derek replied.
Maggie didn’t wait for more. She left, going back to her desk but she didn’t like the thoughts she’d been left with. If it came down to it, what would she choose? Was it as simple as her job or her relationship? She wasn’t sure she wanted a relationship with the secretive, angry man Ro was at the moment. If she tried to save her job and bring him into line, he would only lash out at her and do more damage to her feelings for him. Could she hope that if she sat him down and explained what Derek had said, that he would wake up and change for her?
It made her sad to even think about it, to try to put a value on how much she loved him and weigh that against her career. She didn’t want to give him up, even now. She loved him, and she wanted to help him. Whatever was going on couldn’t last forever. She remembered how sweet he had always been to her, how he made her feel, the swelling bubble of love in her chest when they were alone. It made her sad that Derek had done this to her.
But what would it mean if she accepted the demotion? She had worked hard to get where she was. Incomings only had a Team Leader position because of her. Maybe it would be easier after all if Ro went to another team. They would still see each other every day. And he would have more chance of advancement when she wasn’t hogging the next rung on the ladder. She would miss him though. She would miss seeing him just on the other side of her screen, and miss playing footsie with him under the desk. But she supposed she would get over it, if they were still allowed to be together outside of work. If they lived together for example. If they made it that far.
Ro was at his desk when she came back, and he gave her what she thought was an apologetic look. She loved and hated it when she saw glimpses of the old Ro. It would be easier if he stopped giving her hope, but even then, she had to admit to herself she wouldn’t have given up on him. It just made her all the more frustrated to know he was in there, that it was her Ro who was keeping secrets from her. She sighed.
The others looked at her as well when she sat back down, but she didn’t acknowledge them. She just put her earpiece in and got back to work.
Chapter 29
Hours later, Maggie was going back to her desk after consulting with Family Connections about a case when Ro snagged her, hustling her into a maintenance closet.
“Ro! What are you doing?” she said, trying to keep her voice quiet when she wanted to yell. She tripped against a bucket and stumbled into the wall. The space was tiny, lit only by a small window above the door.
Ro wrapped his arms around her from behind, dropping his mouth to her neck as she tried to find her balance. “Maggie…” he purred.
“What?”
“I need you,” he moaned, his hand skating down her stomach to press between her thighs.
She huffed and tried to use her tight skirt to keep him out. “You must be joking!”
“Why?”
“It’s the middle of the day! And I’m not doing it in maintenance closet!” She dug her elbow into his chest as his hands continued to wander over her body. She didn’t hate his touch, but just then she didn’t want it either.
He chuckled. “Is it so different from a stairwell toilet?” he rumbled in her ear.
“Hey!” She didn’t like what he was implying. “That was different, no one was around then, and we weren’t on the clock!” she argued.
He growled, apparently getting tired of her resisting. “Come on…” He pressed his erection into her back.
“No, Ro, I’m serious!” she insisted, this time not bothering to moderate her voice. She gave him a final push and dislodged him. She whirled, and for a second they just stood glaring at each other. Maggie tried to smooth her clothes and hair out.
Ro’s hands flexed at his sides as he scowled at her. “What’s your problem?” he rumbled.
“My problem?” Maggie hissed back. “Have you lost your mind? If we got caught we would lose our jobs! And there’s no way to lock this door from the inside!”
“I thought you wanted this,” he replied.
“No, I don’t!” she snapped back.
Silence, as if something had just broken.
Maggie tried to explain. “Derek told me I could lose my promotion because you’re screwing up and I’m not doing anything about it because you’re my boyfriend, okay?”
“So you’re choosing money over me,” he accused her.
“It’s not about the money! It’s about my reputation! And finally getting some recognition, finally getting somewhere! I’ve worked this job for years, you’ve done it for three months, you don’t understand,” she said, knowing it was unfair but the words just kept coming. She sighed angrily, dropping her face into her hands. “And I’m not choosing anything over you,” she remembered to add.
He didn’t say anything for so long, Maggie lifted her head up to look at him. He had one hand on the wall, leaning away from her.
“Is that it? You’re not going to say anything?” she asked. At least if they were fighting, he wasn’t shutting her out.
“I don’t feel well,” he said.
“What?” Maggie replied, not expecting that.
“I-” He was cut off as his knees dropped from under him, spilling him against the wall.
“Oh my God!” Maggie said, quickly kneeling next to him, her hands going to his face, his shoulders, his chest, trying to find the problem. Her hands came away
wet, and she threw open the door of the closet to get more light. Her hands were covered in blood. Ro was bleeding from his eyes and nose. “Ro!” she screamed.
He slumped against the wall, unable to hold himself up anymore, his body shaking, and Maggie screamed again. “Help! Help!” She got her arms under his and tried to pull him out into the corridor, lay him out flat.
With the door of the closet open, anyone in the corridor could see them, and they could certainly hear Maggie as she panicked. She couldn’t lift him or move him very far by herself, but almost instantly people were swarming around her. “Help, I don’t know what’s wrong with him!” she sobbed to the person nearest to her. She wasn’t crying, but her whole body was shaking. She couldn’t feel the floor beneath her. She was terrified. Ro was a dead weight, his eyes closed, blood still running off his face. “He won’t wake up!”
She looked at him and realised she had balled her hands in his shirt, as if she could physically keep him with her that way. The crowd around her was made up of people she didn’t recognise and people she half-knew, no one she identified as anyone who could help, so she kept crying. “Call an ambulance!” she shrieked, tears coming now as the words made her realise something was happening, something bad, and he could lose him.
A man next to her grabbed her arm and when she flinched, looking at him, he was kneeling too and had his head lowered to hers. “What happened?” he demanded.
“I don’t know, I don’t know, we were fighting…” She broke out in fresh sobs as she realised that was true, hating herself for it.
The crowd parted and the two security guards from the front of building pushed through.
“What happened?” Tol asked, his hands moving over Ro. “Did he fall?”
“No, I mean, yes, he- he lost his balance, but I think that was because of- it wasn’t because of that that he’s like this,” she explained as best she could.
“Okay, have you called a doctor already?”
“No, I haven’t, someone else might have. Is he going to be okay? Is this normal?” The way his eyes flicked to her told Maggie this wasn’t normal, but it had been her one naive hope, that Ro was going through some Balin thing that only looked dangerous.
Tol looked over his shoulder to Lee. “Get the stretcher from downstairs, we’ll take him the medical centre at the dorms. Tell them we’re coming,” he ordered.
“Doesn’t he need a hospital?” Maggie sniffed, getting herself a little under control now someone was taking charge and getting help.
“The medical centre at the dorms know how to treat Teissians better than anyone. Has he been sick recently?” he asked.
“No,” Maggie said, then remembered. “He’s been acting differently.”
“Differently how?”
“Angry, not like himself,” Maggie told him.
He grunted, loosening Ro’s tie and undoing the buttons at his neck, checking his pulse. Maggie kicked herself for not thinking of that.
“Is he going to be okay?” Maggie asked, her lip wobbling again. She didn’t know what she’d do if he wasn’t. A nosebleed she could handle, a fainting spell she could laugh off, but this was scary.
Tol hummed in consideration. “Has he taken anything?” he asked.
“What? Taken anything? Like-” She had a bolt of inspiration. “Kez! Get Kez! He knows! Get him, he works in Requisitions, Enquiries department!” Maggie looked around at the group watching.
Tol pointed at someone. “You, go get him,” he ordered, and the person hurried off. More security guards ran up and began pushing people back, making space.
Maggie looked back at Ro. His face was a mess, his collar laced in red, and his shirt patterned with it where she had touched him. Her own clothes wouldn’t be much better but she didn’t care. She bent over him. “Ro, Ro,” she whispered to him. She tried shaking him a tiny bit, barely rocking him, trying to get him to wake up. “Please wake up. Wake up, wake up…” There was something terrible about the way he wasn’t reacting to her. It had never happened before. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice breaking and face crumpling, her tears falling on his face. “I didn’t mean it…”
She keened and rocked over him, until a second pair of hands on Ro, green and scaled, made her gasp and look up. Kez was crouched next to the Volin guard, looking ashen, his eyes wide and lips tight. He was going through Ro’s pockets, until he pulled out a small plastic packet of something white.
“There,” he said, his voice shaking. He gave it to Tol.
“What is that?” Maggie demanded, watching as the packet disappeared into the guard’s uniform. “What did you give him? What did you do?” she shrieked at Kez.
Kez surged at her over Ro’s body, making her flinch back. He looked like he wanted to claw her to pieces, his eyes wild. “It was you,” he hissed. “I told him not to, I begged him to stop, but he wouldn’t! For you! He said you needed it, you-” He bit out a couple of curses in Balin. “-woman!”
Maggie stared in shock, her mouth open until she stuttered back, “It-It wasn’t me! I didn’t do anything, I didn’t know, he wouldn’t tell me anything!”
They couldn’t argue any more as Lee arrived with a bright orange stretcher that he unfolded next to Ro.
“We’ll take him to the medical centre,” Tol told her, resting his hand on her arm briefly. “You should go home.”
“What? No!”
“You need to change your clothes. Call the centre before you visit,” he said, taking one end of the stretcher and standing up with Lee at the other end. Little engines whirred inside the stretcher, taking most of the weight.
Maggie moved to stumble after them and Tol stopped her. “It will be family only,” he said.
“He doesn’t have any family,” she argued.
“We’ll get in touch with his Community Leader. I’m sorry,” Tol finished, then they were gone.
Maggie whirled on Kez, unable to just do nothing.
“I’ll tell Derek,” he said, his eyes narrowed.
She grabbed his arm as he went to walk passed her. “No, you can’t just- You need to tell me what’s going on. What happened to him?”
Kez threw her off with a barely contained rage. “Go home, basti woman,” he spat. “Look at yourself.”
Maggie looked down her front. Her black skirt shone and stuck to her it was so soaked in blood, her shirt was better but it was still a mess, big palm-sized smudges of red on her tan blouse. Her hands and legs were similarly stained, and she wouldn’t be surprised if it was on her face too.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what you know,” Maggie demanded, trying to stand her ground even as she trembled, petrified of what might happen to Ro, what Kez might tell her.
Kez stared at her, assessing. He narrowed his eyes, and she knew whatever was coming was only meant to hurt her. “What he has been taking is meant to be taken only once, once! He has been taking it for a week!”
“Why? What is it?” she asked, feeling cold.
“It is a… stimulant,” Kez said, needing a moment to find the word. “It makes a male more male, briefly.”
“Why would he take that?”
Kez stepped into her space, his face inches from hers as he looked at her, his eyes slits. “Because his wradnu woman wasn’t happy with what a Balin could give her, she wanted more.”
“I never told him that,” Maggie whimpered, standing her ground and defending herself, though it was hard. It sure felt like this was her fault.
Kez laughed and it was an ugly sound. “Get out of my sight,” he said. “Or I’ll make sure he never has a reason to take it ever again.”
Maggie recognised the threat for what it was, and turned on her heel, fleeing into the nearest bathroom. She didn’t think Kez would really hurt her, not physically anyway, not in the middle of the DETI building, in the middle of the day, with Security still all around. But she had reached her limit on how long she could watch someone hate her. She didn’t have the strength, not when she couldn’
t get her mind straight.
Ro was hurt, possibly badly, and Kez said it was her fault. She didn’t know if she was going to get Ro back, even if he recovered, and the last thing they had done was fight.
She caught sight of her reflection in the mirror and broke into tears again, running the tap to try to at least wash the blood off her hands. A few minutes later, Lucy found her.
“Oh honey…” she said, and she opened her arms, and Maggie gratefully took the hug and the shoulder to cry on.
Chapter 30
Maggie did as she was told.
Not long after Lucy found her, Derek knocked on the bathroom door and stuck his head in. As soon as he saw her, he said “You should go home,” in a fatherly voice. He looked pitying, stunned, a little ragged. “Do you need anything?” he asked.
Maggie shook her head, which was a lie. She needed new clothes. She needed Ro back. She needed him to be okay, for someone to jog up to them and tell her it was all a big mistake. She needed to wake up from this nightmare.
She looked wet, but Lucy had helped her clean up enough that there was no obvious blood. Her skirt was starting to stiffen with it, but it was hidden on the black material. Derek called her a podcab and sent her home.
She was in a daze. She’d been told she couldn’t be with Ro when that was the only place she wanted to be. She couldn’t imagine where he was or what was happening to him; she couldn’t picture the room he was in, she didn’t know if he was even still alive, but with him was the only place that still felt real to her. Nothing else did. Did they really expect her to just go home? Was the sun really still shining? Were her neighbours really still going about a normal day? Was this really her apartment without him in it?
In an obedient daze, she stripped off her dirty clothes, considering the laundry basket then stuffed them into the bin. She showered. It was what the others had meant when they had told her to go home, and right then, that was all she had. She had no other direction. She did feel marginally better once Ro’s blood was off her, and her hair was wet and cold. She felt stronger, focused, freer. She could handle it. She knew what she had to do and how to do it.
The New Guy (Office Aliens Book 2) Page 24
